In signed and spoken language
Jake Frandsen
 Words are arbitrary symbols
Saussure,Cours de Linguistique Générale Paris (1916)
 “One of the idees reques of all the disciplines that
study language is the assumption that the relation
between sound and meaning is arbitrary.”
Linda R. Waugh, Against Arbitrariness, 1
ASL is considered a true, proper language.
BUT
ASL and other signed languages are highly iconic.
Arbitrariness has almost no place in ASL.
Some myths:
 sign language is universal.
 sign language is a manual representation of the oral
language of the surrounding community; i.e. ASL is a
direct translation of English.
 sign languages are all pantomime
 A sign can be specified by describing its four
simultaneously realized parameters:
1.
2.
3.
4.
hand configuration (designation, “dez”)
location (tabula, “tab”)
movement (signification, “sig”)
orientation
 ASL minimal pairs:




APPLE:CANDY (differing only in hand configuration),
APPLE:ONION (differing only in location)
APPLE:CHEEKY (differing only in movement)
SIT:NAME (differ ing only in the angle at which the two
hands contact one another )
Stokoe et al. A dictionary of American Sign Language on linguistic principles. (1965)
Are spoken languages iconic?
A phonestheme is a phoneme that carries actual
semantic meaning.
Consider:
 flap, flare, flee, flick, flicker, fling, flip, flit, flitter,
flow, flutter, fly, flurry.
 snore, snorkel, sniff, sniffle, snuffle, snuff, snivel,
snout, snoot, snub, snot, sneeze, snoop.
 /gr-/ has been analyzed into three loosely connected
phonesthemes:
relating to something unpleasant (grim, grisly, gritty,
grotty, grotesque, greedy, gruesome, gruff),
2. relating to complaint (grumble, groan, grunt, grieve,
grudge, gripe, grumpy, and even disgruntled),
3. relating to undesirable rubbing (grind, grate, grovel,
grub)
1.
 seventy-five percent of standard English words are
based on phonesthemes or have their “meaning
colored or altered in varying degree by secondary
association with phonesthemes.”
 sixteen percent “are capable of being associated" with
phonesthemes.
 nine percent are "clearly and completely arbitrary,
their meaning unaffected by the sound.”
Fred Householder, “On the Problem of Sound and Meaning,” 83.
 The Phonosemantic Hypothesis
In every language of the world, every word containing
a given phoneme has some specific element of
meaning which is lacking in words not containing that
phoneme. In this sense, we can say that every
phoneme is meaning-bearing. The meaning that the
phoneme bears is rooted in its articulation.
Margaret Magnus, dissertation
 Onomatopoeia is perhaps the only aspect of spoken
language where sound symbolism and
phonosemantics are generally accepted to be present.
 Spoken languages exhibit iconicity in their
representations of sound (onomatopoeia)
 ASL exhibits iconicity in its representation of concrete
objects
 Is the level of such iconicity in signed and spoken
languages comparable? Or is one more iconic than the
other?
 Obtained ten Spanish onomatopoeic words.
 Chose ten ASL iconic signs.
 Distributed answer sheet to 66 students.
 Each word or sign received a point for every student that guessed its meaning
correctly; each lost a point for every student that did not guess its meaning
correctly.
 Each word received a score between -66 and +66.
 The average score of each word was calculated for each language.
 The total number of points for all words was calculated to give each language
an overall score out of 660.
Cat
House
Snow
Table
Ball
Box
Bicycle
Tree
Car
Fish
Word
[go:n]
[njaʔaʔa]
[pa:ŋ]
[klin]
[bo:m]
Meaning
Speeding car
Car slamming on
brakes
Large metal pan
hitting the floor
Spoon hitting the
floor
Bomb
detonating
Word
[pum]
[gnum]
[krak]
[plaf]
[atʃis]
Meaning
Gun being fired
Person diving into
water
Person walking
through dry leaves
Door being slammed
Sneeze
100%
100%
90%
90%
80%
80%
70%
70%
60%
60%
50%
50%
40%
40%
30%
30%
20%
20%
10%
10%
0%
0%
Incorrect
Correct
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Out of 660
ASL
Spanish
 ASL is highly iconic; its signs are even more iconic
than the onomatopoeia found in Spanish, a spoken
language.
 Statements about arbitrariness in language must take
into account the extremely high level of iconicity in
signed languages.